The present invention relates to chewing gum products. More particularly, the invention relates to the use of calcium sulfate in chewing gum compositions and in a rolling compound for chewing gum products.
Chewing gum compositions often contain a filler or texturizer such as talc or calcium carbonate. The filler or texturizer may be compounded into the chewing gum base, added as a separate ingredient when mixing the chewing gum composition, or both.
Chewing gum products often include a rolling compound, sometimes referred to as a dusting agent. The rolling compound prevents the gum product from sticking to equipment during gum piece configuration operations, such as sheeting and scoring, or wrapping operations or to the wrapper itself. Typical rolling compounds include sugars and alditols, as well as talc and calcium carbonate.
Talc is more expensive than calcium carbonate, but calcium carbonate is unsuitable for use in some gum compositions. Particularly chewing gums with acidulents, such as sour fruit flavored gums, cannot use calcium carbonate as a filler because it reacts with the acid in the gum composition.
It would therefore be desirable to have a filler and rolling compound that is less expensive than talc, as well as a filler that will not react with acids in acid-containing chewing gums.